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Comparison of and With NaI(Tl) and Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) Detectors

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science · July 2008

DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2008.922837 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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1174 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 55, NO. 3, JUNE 2008

Comparison of LaBr3 : Ce and LaCl3 : Ce With

NaI(Tl) and Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) Detectors
D. Alexiev, Member, IEEE, L. Mo, D. A. Prokopovich, Student Member, IEEE, M. L. Smith, and M. Matuchova

Abstract—Energy resolution and detection efficiency were com- of the unstable La isotope and Uranium and Actinium series
pared between new scintillators, Lanthanum Bromide (LaBr3 : contaminant [3]–[5]. It has been mentioned that the Uranium
Ce) and Lanthanum Chloride (LaCl3 : Ce) with conventional and Actinium series contaminant in the most recent LaBr Ce
detectors, Sodium Iodide (NaI(Tl) and Cadmium Zinc Telluride
(CdZnTe or CZT). The study has shown that LaBr3 : Ce and scintillators ( and ) has been reduced greatly [3],
LaCl3 : Ce scintillator detectors provided by Saint-Gobain offer [6].
better resolution than NaI(Tl) detector. LaBr3 : Ce and LaCl3 : In this work, “self-activity” of LaBr Ce was measured with
Ce detectors could resolve some closely spaced peaks from 133 Ba a High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector and by operating the
and 152 Eu, which Na(I) could not. LaBr3 : Ce has slightly better detector itself. Comparisons are made of key parameters such
resolution and higher efficiency than LaCl3 : Ce. An overall ad-
vantage of LaBr3 : Ce and LaCl3 : Ce detectors over NaI(Tl) and as energy resolution and detection efficiency of LaBr Ce,
CZT has been discussed. The intrinsic activity of LaBr3 : Ce is LaCl Ce, NaI(Tl) and CZT detectors. The scintillators and
also demonstrated in this study. CZT detector are tested by comparing the peak separation and
Index Terms—CZT, efficiency, gamma spectral comparison, identification in the energy range up to 1.5 MeV using Ba,
LaBr3 : Ce, LaCl3 : Ce, NaI(Tl), resolution. Eu and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM).
The motivation of this study is to evaluate LaBr Ce and
LaCl Ce scintillators for applications in ionizing radiation
I. INTRODUCTION measurements, such as coincidence counting of beta—gamma
emitters [7], activity measurement for neutron flux determina-
tion [8] and Safeguards applications [9].

N
LaCl
EW scintillators, activated with cerium Ce
the primary scintillation source such as LaBr
ions as
Ce and
Ce have gained interest due to good time resolution
(100 to 300 hundreds picoseconds depending on crystal size), II. EXPERIMENTAL
good energy resolution ( 2–3% FWHM at 661 keV), high ef-
ficiency and light output per keV ( 63 photons/keV) and fast A LaBr Ce (volume 12.9 cm ) and LaCl Ce
decay time ( 16 ns) [1], [2]. These superior properties classify (volume 12.9 cm ) scintillation detector, coupled with Photonis
this material as a possible radiation detector which could replace XP2060B photomultiplier tube and Type AS16 Voltage Divider/
CZT and NaI(Tl) for a variety of applications requiring detec- Preamplifier were obtained from Saint-Gobain. Operation bias
tors that operate at room-temperature. of the scintillators was 570 V.
The shortcoming of LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce scintillators The CZT detector (volume 0.5 cm ), type CZT/500, was sup-
is that they are slightly “self-active,” which can be seen as spu- plied by RITEC. The NaI(Tl) (volume 21.2 cm ) scintillator
rious spectral lines when collecting a spectrum. These intrinsic assembly, model 30B30/1.5-HV-E3-X, was supplied by AMP-
spurious lines may limit the utilization of the detector, especially TEK.
in low-level counting. The “self-activity” is due to the presence LaBr Ce was measured with a HPGe detector (EGPX
R500) in a low background lead castle over a period 2 days to
obtain the background spectrum of this scintillator.
Manuscript received June 13, 2007; revised February 24, 2008. A “self activity” spectrum was also taken of the LaBr Ce
D. Alexiev is with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organiza- scintillator over 1 day in a low background lead castle to illus-
tion, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia (e-mail: dax@ansto.gov.au). trate the internal (self) detection of the intrinsic decay spectrum
L. Mo is with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization,
Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia, and also with the Institute of Medical of La and possibly alpha particles from the uranium decay
Physics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia (e-mail: chain.
lmx@ansto.gov.au).
D. A. Prokopovich is with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
The energy resolution and detection efficiency for all detec-
Organization, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia, and also with the Centre tors were measured using Ba, Eu, Cs, Co. Peak sep-
for Medical Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW aration and identification were tested using Ba, Eu Pu,
2522, Australia (e-mail: dpr@ansto.gov.au).
M. L. Smith is with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organ-
HEU ( U, 97% enriched), Ra and Th. These isotopes
ization, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia, and also with the Department gave a reasonable coverage of energy range for overall perfor-
of Nuclear Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT (e-mail: mance evaluation. All sources used were “point sources.” All
mls@ansto.gov.au). radioisotopes were placed on a lucid assembly, 10 cm in front
M. Matuchova is with the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics,
Czech Academy of Science, Chaberska 57, 18251 Praha 8, Czech Republic. of the scintillator assembly or the CZT detector surface. Both
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TNS.2008.922837 detector and source were located inside a lead castle.
0018-9499/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
ALEXIEV et al.: COMPARISON OF LaBr Ce AND LaCl Ce WITH NaI(Tl) AND CADMIUM ZINC TELLURIDE (CZT) DETECTORS 1175

Fig. 1. HPGe spectrum of LaBr : Ce detector with background subtracted in

a low activity lead castle. Fig. 2. LaBr : Ce intrinsic internal decay spectrum taken by operation of the
scintillator itself.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Intrinsic Spectral Analysis

Fig. 1 shows the spectrum (background subtracted) of
LaBr Ce measured with a HPGe detector over 2 days in
a low background lead castle. Three intrinsically produced
photon peaks from the decay of La are observed. These are
789 keV gamma line from the beta decay branch, 1436 keV
gamma line from electron capture branch and a 32 keV X-ray
fluorescence peak. A 1461 keV line from K, with much
smaller scale, is also observed next to the 1436 keV line.
The gamma-rays associated with the Uranium and Actinium
series, such as Th, Ra, Rn, Bi, Po, Po, Bi,
Pb were not detected by the HPGe detector. We note that
Fig. 3. Ba energy spectrum: comparison between LaBr : Ce and LaCl :
these isotopes were observed by Balcerzyk et al. [5] and Kernan Ce, NaI(Tl) and CdZnTe.
[3] on LaCl Ce.
The “self activity” spectrum of the LaBr Ce scintillator is
shown in Fig. 2. The continuum with an at approximately For example, Ba has four main peaks grouped fairly close
260 keV is probably due to the beta decay of La to Ce. The together (separated by less than 100 keV) showing the impor-
emission line with a peak around 1460 keV corresponds to the tance of adequate spectral resolution for isotopic identification.
overlapped 1460 keV line of K, originating from the glass of In Fig. 3, the NaI(Tl) detector is unable to resolve all four key
the photomultiplier tube, with the 1435 keV La line summing peaks of Ba, namely 276, 303, 356 and 384 keV. The CZT,
internally with 32 keV X-rays. The 789 keV line sitting on the LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce detectors are able to resolve these
beta continuum is only just resolvable. The low energy photon emission line groupings. Good spectral resolution and high effi-
peak at approximately 32 keV is due to Ba K (32.2 keV) ciency becomes important when working with sources that have
and K (31.8 keV) X-ray fluorescence. Ba is the daughter a complicated decay scheme. For example, Eu has a com-
product of La from electron capture branch. plicated decay scheme that has emissions over a large range of
The broad band peaks (between 1700 and 2700 keV) due to energy, with relatively close peaks at both ends of this energy
alpha particles from the Uranium decay chain [3]–[5] are also range.
observed (Fig. 2). As seen in Fig. 4, LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce as well as CZT
were able to resolve closely spaced emission lines of Eu,
B. Energy Resolution Comparison
such as 411 and 444 keV lines. When a similar Eu spectrum
Before discussing energy resolution, we like to note that the was taken with NaI(Tl), these close spectral lines could not be
NaI(Tl) crystal used in this work has almost double the volume resolved.
of the LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce crystals. In general, smaller Fig. 5 shows the greater ability of the LaBr Ce and LaCl
scintillation crystals produce a better resolution. Ce over the NaI(Tl) detector in resolving the Pu gamma
The energy resolution of LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce were peaks in the region of 300 to 400 keV. Fig. 6 is included for
compared with the resolution of NaI(Tl) and CZT. We note that the similar comparisons for HEU.
good spectral resolution is required for isotopic identification, Fig. 7 illustrates the variations of energy resolution (defined
particularly when peaks are closely grouped together as in HEU as FWHM/E) of the detectors as a function of the gamma en-
and Pu, or for identification of isotopes in mixed sources. ergies. The best-fit of LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce data is
1176 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 55, NO. 3, JUNE 2008

Fig. 7. Energy resolution (FWHM/E): comparison between LaBr : Ce,

LaCl : Ce, NaI(Tl) and CZT.
Fig. 4. Eu energy spectrum: comparison between LaBr : Ce, LaCl : Ce,
NaI(Tl) and CdZnTe.

FWHM/E is not as good, is the Gaussian emission line distri-

bution in contrast to the asymmetry seen with CZT (Figs. 3–6).
A Gaussian distribution is desirable for most peak analysis and
identification process. In general these programs will use a form
of peak fitting and 2nd order differential analysis as a process to
interpret spectral information that may be hidden in electronic
noise. A unique peak analysis and identification program [10]
was used for asymmetric peaks.
As seen in Fig. 7, the resolution of the LaBr Ce and LaCl
Ce appears to be excellent for energies above approximately 120
keV. Whereas below 120 keV, the resolution becomes similar to
NaI(Tl), as described in the publication [5].
For energies below 120 keV, LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce
offers little advantage over NaI(Tl). And, when considering the
Fig. 5. Pu energy spectrum: comparison between LaBr : Ce, LaCl : Ce,
NaI(Tl) and CZT. cost of the scintillator, NaI(Tl) could be preferable over LaBr
Ce and LaCl Ce. The resolution of the Cs 662 keV line
for NaI(Tl) is 6.4% compared with 1.8% of CZT, 3.0% of
LaBr Ce and 4.2% of LaCl Ce (Fig. 7). For the 245 keV
emission line from Eu the resolution for NaI(Tl) is 9.6%,
for CZT 2.7%, while LaBr Ce has a resolution of 5.1%
and LaCl Ce 6.3%. This demonstrates that LaBr Ce and
LaCl Ce detectors have clear advantages over the properties
of the NaI detector.

C. Detection Efficiency Comparison

A comparison of the full energy peak efficiency in the en-
ergy range of 244 to 1332 keV between the three scintillators
LaBr Ce, LaCl Ce and NaI(Tl) is shown in Fig. 8. NaI(Tl)
has greater efficiency since its volume is double than that of
other two crystals. When comparing LaBr Ce with LaCl
Ce, LaBr Ce has a greater efficiency. In the high energy
Fig. 6. Energy spectrum of HEU: comparison between LaBr : Ce, LaCl :
regime (above approximately 1200 keV), the efficiency of the
Ce, NaI(Tl) and CZT.
three scintillators are similar.

and , which is not an ideal inversely D. Identification of Naturally Occurring Radioactive

proportional function of the square root of the energy [5], [9]. Materials
Further measurements and peak statistics analysis is intended Ra and Th sources were used for observing peak sepa-
for future work. In general, LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce are ration and identification of naturally occurring radioactive mate-
a good compromise between CZT and NaI(Tl) detectors with rials using the LaBr Ce scintillator. The peaks used for iden-
LaBr Ce slightly outperforming LaCl Ce. The advan- tifying Ra and Th are not necessarily from the intrinsic
tage of LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce over CZT, even though the decay peaks of the parent nuclei, but are from the peaks of their
ALEXIEV et al.: COMPARISON OF LaBr Ce AND LaCl Ce WITH NaI(Tl) AND CADMIUM ZINC TELLURIDE (CZT) DETECTORS 1177

Fig. 8. Full energy peak efficiency: comparison between LaBr : Ce, LaCl :
Fig. 10. Energy spectrum of Th measured using the LaBr : Ce detector.
Ce and NaI (Tl).

the La which appear as a residual in spectrum display. How-

ever, being aware of these emission lines, gamma spectroscopy
using LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce should not present a problem.
LaBr Ce and LaCl Ce scintillators can be used in a wide
range of applications, such as coincidence—counting,
isotopic identification, and Safeguards applications for moni-
toring of nuclear materials.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Prof. M. Moszynski of the
Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Poland, for support and ad-
vice, and Dr. R. Arlt of the IAEA for his invaluable input and
support of this paper.
Fig. 9. Energy spectrum of Ra measured using the LaBr : Ce detector.
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